PETALING JAYA: Another Umno leader is urging the authorities to identify those who backed Raja Petra Kamaruddin, currently believed to be living abroad.

Umno supreme council member Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad described the Malaysia Today news portal editor as a puppet to those who supported him.

He added that the priority now was to trace Raja Petra’s backers who might have a sinister agenda.

Raja Petra, said Dr Abdul Latiff, had to bear responsibility for all the stories that he had spun on behalf of these masterminds who supported him.

“Whatever stories spun by Raja Petra only benefited a certain individual or organisation. It is interesting to know who are the real masterminds and what they are up to,’’ he said, adding that Raja Petra was an “ideal puppet”.

Abdul Latiff said this in support of the growing number of Umno leaders calling on the authorities to identify those backing Raja Petra’s stay abroad.

Among those who had made the call included fellow Umno supreme council members Datuk Dr Puad Zarkashi and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Soon after Raja Petra was believed to be staying in a posh neighbourhood in London, Raja Petra had on Dec 31 uploaded photographs on his website suggesting that he could even be in Poland.

Two arrest warrants had been issued against him after he failed to appear in court on April 23 and May 23, last year for his sedition trial; where he allegedly defamed the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in an article on his website.

He is also accused of defaming Rosmah and two others in a statutory declaration made at the Jalan Duta Court complex on June 18, last year.

Dr Abdul Latiff said Raja Petra could be using a different identity abroad.